Just over a week ago I was musing about the choices of man and the timing of God. I encounter so many business owners who believe they can dictate terms and timing to God. Entrepreneurs see windows of opportunity and seize them. When it comes to spiritual things some are less astute. Jesus gave the people of his day free choice, but he also lamented when their window of opportunity opened and closed while they pontificated, as if they could have God in their time. “O Jerusalem, if only you knew…” but they missed the moment.

This last week six people saw the window–probably six out of sixty, or one hundred and twenty–and they grasped the hour with all they had. I am deeply delighted for them, and at the same time I wonder how many more could have had a timely God encounter if they had their ears open to his moment. Please understand this is not bitterness on my part: I learned a long time ago that you don’t make good wine out of sour grapes. I am simply sharing the dual and simultaneous emotions of Jesus seen in Luke 19; unstoppable joy and tears over a nation. Some saw him in the marketplace and got it. Others thought, “We will get back to you… in our time.” Are we not presumptuous to believe there is an appointed time for individuals but not for companies?

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said,
If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace?but now it is hidden from your eyes.

We have a choice, and we don’t. We choose whether, we choose if, but when God has a when and we don’t opt in, we are not guaranteed another choice.

Surviving requires an unshaking belief that there is an end game, and it is good. Someone has said, “In the end things are good; if it’s not good, it is not the end.” David, the poet, warrior and king, put it this way. “How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you.” When mankind has given up believing in you and you stay true to your season, faith is earning compound interest in heaven, vindication is multiplying in your eternal account, and blessing is amassing for future public display.

Today is not a season, but having a seasonal posture while in today is still pretty important. “My seasons are in your hand.”

Every now and then one gets feedback on a book. I just received an email from a reader overseas where he opined:

The long weekend served me well in making it a priority to read and complete your book on Transforming Society – most inspiring and very practical and easy to read from young to old, as the bible is. You have really conveyed God’s heart in such a practical way for all spheres of society and given them tools and a compass to transform their sectors and all of society. This is truely a work and blessing of the Lord for your diligence over many years to live and teach others to live an integrated life.

When one has a sub-title like “A framework for fixing a broken world” it is good to get objective feedback that the topic hits the target, the book backs up the byline.

I like it!

1. End poverty by 2030.
2. Environmental sustainability.
3. Social inclusion.
4. Good governance.

I am actually impressed that they have honed the list to just four things. And, at a high level, their prescription looks laudatory. “Good news to the poor” must include getting a job, or starting a business. I would re-frame “environmental sustainability” with a broader measure of total asset stewardship, since I am a tad suspicious of the environment becoming its own agenda. Social inclusion: I like the idea of happiness not being the preserve of a dominant group.

Good governance is a must, but a challenge, since you don’t shift from bad to good without addressing corruption, greed and the abuse of power. This means heart surgery, but not of the human kind. Here the efforts of man without the participation of God fail. So we have to be careful not to simply plonk Millennium Development Goals or the newly proposed Sustainable Development Goals on the wistful pillars of human compassion and logic without a addressing the spiritual foundations of nations. On paper, the goals may look fine. In practice, we cannot transform society without addressing all spheres of society, and Religion–like business (poverty), government (governance)–has to be repurposed. Don’t get me wrong: God knows we don’t need more religion! Spiritual revival is no guarantee of societal transformation. But man is spiritual, and that spiritual DNA is present in families, corporations and nations. So any attempt to just do what is humanly possible will not yield the results hoped for. Transformation requires personal reformation somewhere in the journey, don’ t you think?

“The benefit we, the consumers, and Apple extract from these products at the expense of Foxconn and its workforce is completely unequal,” Moel said, “Foxconn will also have to meet these requirements for all its customers — Apple, Dell, H-P — because it is at risk of being audited at any production line.”

Apple is the world’s most valuable company, with a current market capitalization of over $563 billion. Its shares were trading Friday at $602.04, down $7.82, or 1.3 percent.

So says an article in IB Times today, and this just after the new CEO doled out gazzillions to shareholders from the large Apple treasure troves. It seems the direct line from mistreated workers to enriched shareholders, via happy consumers, is too hard to miss.

To their credit, Apple initiated the audit. Now let’s see if they follow through with concrete action while resisting the urge to pass all the cost on to consumers.

We spent some time discussing the Reality Index at a training last night. Managers see themselves as the plumb center of realism. To the Managers us Luminaries are out in left field, and the Networkers in right field. And, sadly, this is the generally accepted practice in major corporations. They don’t mind the celebrated stories of L, E and N… but they hire M to keep a steady hand on the tiller.

Later in the evening someone said, “LEMON Leadership is my favorite book,” but then added a confession. “Actually, I enjoyed the first half of the book, which was more upbeat.” He scores very high on the Networker slice of LEMON, confirming that Networkers like good news. They want the upbeat stories, the new relationships, the fun stuff. He did not like the weakness, the dark side, the potential negatives half as much.

Dyed in the yellow Managers say, “Get real. You have to look at the bright side and the dark side of LEMONs.” Managers are real, but they are only one slice of real, and one slice does not a LEMON make.

My two cents is that this survey is not very helpful, except for a sentence or two at the bottom that says, “Americans across the political and religious landscape agree that the federal budget is a moral document that reflects our national priorities.” We can separate church and state, but we cannot strip economics of its foundations and hope to have a just, equitable, fair society. In my book, Repurposing Capital, I make the point that our modern economic systems have lost their moral moorings.

So, is this survey helpful? A USA Today article seems to be generating some discussion with polarized responses, perhaps reflecting the underlying confusion about the difference between capitalism and materialism. From a data perspective, I am not convinced the survey is useful; from the perspective of fostering the public discussion, I like it.